Tom Tucker’s 2018 Golf Tips: Stage 9

For simplicity, all advice on actual swings or drills is provided from a right handed perspective.

I had an interesting conversation with a student of mine – a mid handicap player – about what he should do over the winter to improve his game. He had intended to go to a place where there is a simulator and basically analyze everything after every swing.

I nixed that idea, because if you are working on technique you’ll actually be wasting a lot of time and learning reps doing it that way.

The first thing I recommended was getting a 9 foot indoor putting ramp, and practicing putting and short chips twice weekly. I believe that I mentioned before that I have and use the one shown here: Tour Links 9 Ft. Training Aid I use my SquareStrike™ training aid with it, and I can also practice 5 foot chips with it off a chipping mat.

For full swing practice, I favor hitting into a net or a simulator cage, but not with a lot of stats analysis after each swing.

I favor simply hitting into an indoor net while practicing perfect technique without paying too much attention to the results for the first half of your winter practice. Then for the second half of your off season practice, pay more attention to your target accuracy.

That’s what I actually like about indoor practice, that the student isn’t as results oriented as if he or she was hitting balls outdoors. From an instructors perspective I see that they can concentrate a little more on pure technique.

The concentration is on good movement patterns, not target awareness. It definitely frees up the swing.

That’s why our colder months are advantageous for separating movement patterns from actual playing outcomes, and really focusing on the quality of movement and building better technique.

If you remove the outcome, you can become totally focused on changing the pattern.

When it comes around to next year’s golf season again, everything should be more automatic, then you can focus on target awareness and scoring as opposed to building swing technique.

If you are planning on working on your swing technique this winter, try this you’ll like it. If you need some instruction to make sure that your technique is sound, contact me to schedule a lesson.

Comments: ttucker@rochester.rr.com

Love your practice, own your swing, own your health,

Tom

Tom’s Bonus Tip: Putter Sole Design Variance

For simplicity, all advice on actual swings or drills is provided from a right handed perspective.

Here’s something that you may not have been aware of – that there are potential sources of error built into the sole design of some putters.

A relatively flat sole from toe to heel on the putter will tend to make you set up into a fixed lie angle, without any compensation for slightly different personal preferences – like how close you carry your hands to your body.

If the ball is about 8 inches away from your toe line with your eyes generally over the ball and with relaxed but relatively straight arms, the lie angle of the putter will be very close to 72 degrees.

That’s considered to be standard, but with a lot of things in putting there is a lot of room for personal preference without necessarily sacrificing good results.

A putter designed with a proper radius on the sole (a curved sole) from toe to heel will allow for up to several degrees – plus or minus – of personal preference at setup on a flat surface keeping the golfer in their personal setup comfort zone.

A proper (for you) sole radius can reduce the sources of error in the putter itself.

Another plus is that a putter with a radiused sole will not snag during the stroke when the ball is on a side hill slope.

Don’t be afraid to experiment if you have a flat soled putter that doesn’t seem to fit your setup.